Skip to contents

Cards are a common organizing unit for modern user interfaces (UI). At their core, they’re just rectangular containers with borders and padding. However, when utilized properly to group related information, they help users better digest, engage, and navigate through content. This is why most successful dashboard/UI frameworks make cards a core feature of their component library. This article provides an overview of the API that bslib provides to create Bootstrap cards.

Setup code

To demonstrate that bslib cards work outside of Shiny (i.e., in R Markdown, static HTML, etc), we’ll make repeated use of statically rendered htmlwidgets like plotly and leaflet. Here’s some code to create those widgets:

library(bslib)
library(shiny)
library(htmltools)
library(plotly)
library(leaflet)

plotly_widget <- plot_ly(x = diamonds$cut) %>%
  config(displayModeBar = FALSE) %>%
  layout(margin = list(t = 0, b = 0, l = 0, r = 0))

leaflet_widget <- leafletOptions(attributionControl = FALSE) %>%
  leaflet(options = .) %>%
  addTiles()

Shiny usage

Cards work equally well in Shiny. In the examples below, replace plotly_widget with plotlyOutput() and leaflet_widget with leafletOutput() to adapt them for Shiny server-rendered plots/maps.

Hello card()

A card() is designed to handle any number of “known” card items (e.g., card_header(), card_body(), etc) as unnamed arguments (i.e., children). As we’ll see shortly, card() also has some useful named arguments (e.g., full_screen, height, etc).

At their core, card() and card items are just an HTML div() with a special Bootstrap class, so you can use Bootstrap’s utility classes to customize things like colors, text, borders, etc.

card(
  card_header(
    class = "bg-dark",
    "A header"
  ),
  card_body(
    markdown("Some text with a [link](https://github.com)")
  )
)
A header

Some text with a link

Implicit card_body()

If you find yourself using card_body() without changing any of its defaults, consider dropping it altogether since any direct children of card() that aren’t “known” card() items, are wrapped together into an implicit card_body() call.1 For example, the code to the right generates HTML that is identical to the previous example:

card(
  card_header(
    class = "bg-dark",
    "A header"
  ),
  markdown("Some text with a [link](https://github.com).")
)
A header

Some text with a link.

Restricting growth

By default, a card()’s size grows to accommodate the size of its contents. Thus, if a card_body() contains a large amount of text, tables, etc., you may want to specify a height or max_height. That said, when laying out multiple cards, it’s likely best not to specify height on the card(), and instead, let the layout determine the height layout_column_wrap().

Although scrolling is convenient for reducing the amount of space required to park lots of content, it can also be a nuisance to the user. To help reduce the need for scrolling, consider pairing scrolling with full_screen = TRUE (which adds an icon to expand the card’s size to the browser window). Notice how, when the card is expanded to full-screen, max_height/height won’t effect the full-screen size of the card.

card(
  max_height = 250,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "A long, scrolling, description"
  ),
  lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 3, sentences = 5)
)
A long, scrolling, description

Elit blandit lacus sollicitudin eu cursus ad eu luctus, sapien odio massa commodo facilisis. Orci fames orci magnis sem, dignissim porttitor aptent nibh. Mollis conubia id porta congue, semper mattis laoreet sed porttitor. Posuere cum class vehicula porta aliquam vehicula parturient himenaeos tellus; ridiculus dictum mollis. Lobortis sollicitudin malesuada, himenaeos porttitor orci augue feugiat imperdiet?

Lorem sagittis risus sociis vivamus. Ultrices aenean lacus auctor nunc penatibus rhoncus sed. Imperdiet cursus ad habitasse quam tristique massa sed. Malesuada mattis: felis duis morbi consequat, platea lobortis vehicula dictum facilisi. Mollis pharetra odio at turpis parturient ad curae suspendisse habitasse: fames elementum nec habitant arcu nunc phasellus vestibulum.

Adipiscing vivamus integer sem morbi non pulvinar. A odio non integer nibh libero eget ultrices elementum porttitor accumsan in. Torquent per urna cursus pellentesque etiam tincidunt, morbi vel cras. Himenaeos nascetur facilisis ullamcorper eget, aliquet malesuada penatibus. Nascetur litora habitasse, eleifend varius erat velit mattis rhoncus!

Filling outputs

A card()’s default behavior is optimized for facilitating filling layouts. More specifically, if a fill item (e.g., plotly_widget), appears as a direct child of a card_body(), it resizes to fit the card()s specified height. This means, by specifying height = 250 we’ve effectively shrunk the plot’s height from its default of 400 down to about 200 pixels. And, when expanded to full_screen, the plot grows to match the card()’s new size.

card(
  height = 250,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A filling plot"),
  card_body(plotly_widget)
)
A filling plot

Most htmlwidgets (e.g., plotly, leaflet, etc) and some other Shiny output bindings (e.g, plotOutput(), imageOutput(), etc) are fill items by default, so this behavior “just works” in those scenarios. And, in some of these situations, it’s helpful to remove card_body()’s padding, which can be done via spacing & alignment utility classes.

card(
  height = 275,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A filling map"),
  card_body(
    class = "p-0",
    leaflet_widget
  ),
  card_footer(
    class = "fs-6",
    "Copyright 2023 RStudio, PBC"
  )
)
A filling map

Fill item(s) aren’t limited in how much they grow and shrink, which can be problematic when a card becomes very small. To work around this, consider adding a min_height on the card_body() container. For example, try using the handle on the lower-right portion of this card example to make the card taller/smaller.

This interactive example is a bit contrived in that we’re using CSS resize to demonstrate how to make plots that don’t shrink beyond a certain point, but this concept becomes quite useful when implementing page-level filling layouts (i.e., page_fillable()) with multiple cards.

card(
  height = 300,
  style = "resize:vertical;",
  card_header("Plots that grow but don't shrink"),
  card_body(
    min_height = 250,
    plotly_widget,
    plotly_widget
  )
)
Plots that grow but don't shrink

Troubleshooting fill

As you’ll learn more about in filling layouts, a fill item loses its ability to fill when wrapped in additional UI element that isn’t a fillable container. To fix the situation, use as_fill_carrier() to allow the additional element to carry the potential to fill from the card_body() down to the fill item.

Multiple card_body()

A card() can have multiple card_body()s, which is especially useful for:

  1. Combining both resizable and non-resizable contents (i.e., fill items and non-fill).
  2. Allowing each card_body() to have their own styling (via inline styles and/or utility classes) and resizing limits (e.g., min_height).

For example, when pairing filling output with scrolling content, you may want min_height on the filling output since the scrolling content will force it to shrink:

card(
  height = 375,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "Filling plot, scrolling description"
  ),
  card_body(
    min_height = 200,
    plotly_widget
  ),
  card_body(
    class = "lead container",
    lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 10, sentences = 5)
  )
)
Filling plot, scrolling description

Amet cursus euismod vel nostra congue nam interdum dictum penatibus? Id himenaeos tortor: proin lectus curabitur ornare? Leo ridiculus vel – varius posuere eleifend faucibus scelerisque hac. Tortor ad, iaculis, eros suspendisse sapien condimentum, sem vitae sociis porttitor. Tempus potenti praesent – luctus eget nec euismod!

Sit vulputate aenean mattis, placerat varius natoque hac tincidunt donec, congue tincidunt, scelerisque, vulputate sagittis sociis. Ultrices mollis, platea potenti eu euismod conubia, cubilia nibh pulvinar nibh! Dis leo molestie neque non molestie, cursus gravida sagittis nec suscipit. Bibendum quam, purus fermentum ultricies magna habitasse aliquet imperdiet eros, eros lacinia porttitor. Na porttitor.

Consectetur curabitur nisl, auctor pretium per pellentesque! Arcu pharetra auctor aenean, sed, purus euismod ante curabitur? Praesent ultrices natoque nisi quam litora phasellus molestie lectus. Aliquam urna, viverra penatibus netus dictumst: suscipit: nostra urna platea nec tortor condimentum nascetur iaculis! Nascetur nulla dis, montes euismod rutrum potenti nunc aenean fusce per vel.

Amet nostra suspendisse penatibus sociosqu maecenas primis ante, id vel taciti aliquet conubia. Fames aliquam: praesent vehicula felis mauris duis venenatis – etiam curabitur, condimentum auctor porta! Libero massa duis faucibus placerat nibh justo senectus eget – gravida scelerisque convallis. Curae hac dictumst sem varius fringilla ligula; torquent integer, sagittis libero suspendisse vivamus! Na vivamus.

Adipiscing rutrum ut inceptos luctus et condimentum lobortis parturient rutrum urna ridiculus. Blandit porta fringilla consequat quam turpis laoreet purus convallis cras in? Potenti rutrum leo taciti elementum platea bibendum venenatis porttitor donec montes. Tempus nullam ac pellentesque vivamus semper aliquam, lacinia rhoncus nascetur. Semper nunc leo aptent praesent.

Adipiscing facilisis, libero ultricies accumsan ultricies pulvinar congue pellentesque integer massa. Primis sapien auctor nibh interdum ante, enim taciti orci quis vel? Tortor rhoncus tellus congue, laoreet mauris ante ad. Morbi eu gravida commodo eu natoque et fames mus tempus. Posuere arcu suscipit pulvinar turpis fusce ultrices ad nascetur, metus nullam erat penatibus ligula posuere diam pharetra enim?

Sit dui facilisi posuere – commodo, fringilla sapien magna, vitae vitae dis quam eleifend! Donec integer pharetra, volutpat eros aptent non lacus tristique dignissim platea. Hendrerit malesuada class cum magna litora suscipit auctor nibh! Feugiat natoque, eros inceptos suspendisse faucibus cras, a nibh nam. Nisi massa lobortis sem nam ut pellentesque risus fringilla placerat eros dui?

Sit nisi ac sagittis magna nisl libero molestie libero elementum parturient mauris, habitasse hac taciti? Accumsan sapien pretium primis arcu aliquam nibh ornare pharetra senectus dui! Suscipit pretium vestibulum libero et, posuere donec aptent justo. Cum ac dignissim neque velit – leo: pellentesque interdum aptent cubilia elementum? Ligula curae commodo lacinia ultricies non porttitor donec!

Consectetur mattis sodales, auctor justo curae interdum. Duis varius feugiat mollis dapibus faucibus tempus in torquent: auctor diam turpis. Sociis nostra commodo; a commodo, imperdiet cum mollis magna hac vulputate. Litora tempor porta odio, ligula maecenas mauris vehicula in eget. Condimentum metus class ultricies porta semper, facilisis ridiculus fusce tristique posuere.

Adipiscing nunc conubia hac urna sollicitudin feugiat? A est dignissim parturient parturient ut velit lobortis elementum eros. Condimentum ut mauris laoreet nibh nibh. Lacinia libero suscipit purus lacinia inceptos iaculis hendrerit, auctor enim facilisi? Senectus malesuada est felis velit est consequat at vel integer integer aenean malesuada tellus malesuada habitasse lobortis hac habitant.

Also, when the content has a fixed size, and should not be allowed to scroll, set fill = FALSE:

card(
  height = 350,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    "Filling plot, short description"
  ),
  plotly_widget,
  card_body(
    fill = FALSE, gap = 0,
    card_title("A subtitle"),
    p(class = "text-muted", "And a caption")
  )
)
Filling plot, short description
A subtitle

And a caption

Multiple columns

As you’ll learn in column-based layouts, layout_column_wrap() is great for multi-column layouts that are responsive and accommodate for filling output. Here we have an equal-width 2-column layout using width = 1/2, but it’s also possible to have varying column widths.

card(
  height = 350,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A multi-column filling layout"),
  card_body(
    min_height = 200,
    layout_column_wrap(
      width = 1/2,
      plotOutput("p1"),
      plotOutput("p2")
    )
  ),
  lorem::ipsum(paragraphs = 3, sentences = 5)
)
A multi-column filling layout

Consectetur platea eget mattis, non lacus dis ridiculus. Facilisis pellentesque etiam rutrum mollis felis penatibus ligula torquent hendrerit taciti pretium. Varius aenean condimentum hac; lectus primis, odio ultricies nascetur. Imperdiet venenatis nullam consequat parturient habitasse eu commodo nibh cras cras! Blandit dapibus egestas suscipit justo nam.

Amet senectus auctor mi – scelerisque egestas nam pharetra metus ante. Nisl a vivamus orci, leo, gravida praesent at sagittis neque? Cras taciti nullam sodales duis cras: turpis eleifend tempor litora ante. Dictum lacus sem libero hendrerit interdum tempor fusce, cursus ultricies varius. Na varius?

Amet pretium ornare habitasse: dis convallis, auctor suspendisse. Taciti egestas maecenas porttitor himenaeos nulla eget facilisi. Dis ultrices ligula mi commodo phasellus viverra curae eros, metus lacinia platea vitae? Arcu pulvinar praesent sapien vivamus ultrices habitasse risus. Felis consequat, curae, nascetur montes mauris, scelerisque sagittis ligula fringilla parturient aptent enim?

Multiple cards

layout_column_wrap() is especially nice for laying out multiple cards since each card in a particular row will have the same height (by default). Learn more in column-based layouts.

layout_column_wrap(
  width = 1/2,
  height = 300,
  card(full_screen = TRUE, card_header("A filling plot"), plotly_widget),
  card(full_screen = TRUE, card_header("A filling map"), card_body(class = "p-0", leaflet_widget))
)
A filling plot
A filling map

Multiple tabs

navset_card_tab() and navset_card_pill() make it possible to create cards with multiple tabs or pills. These functions have the same full_screen capabilities as normal card()s as well some other options like title (since there is no natural place for a card_header() to be used). Note that, each nav_panel() object is similar to a card(). That is, if the direct children aren’t already card items (e.g., card_title()), they get implicitly wrapped in a card_body().

library(leaflet)
navset_card_tab(
  height = 450,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  title = "HTML Widgets",
  nav_panel(
    "Plotly",
    card_title("A plotly plot"),
    plotly_widget
  ),
  nav_panel(
    "Leaflet",
    card_title("A leaflet plot"),
    leaflet_widget
  ),
  nav_panel(
    shiny::icon("circle-info"),
    markdown("Learn more about [htmlwidgets](http://www.htmlwidgets.org/)")
  )
)
HTML Widgets
A plotly plot
A leaflet plot

Learn more about htmlwidgets

As you’ll learn more about in sidebar layouts, layout_sidebar() just works when placed inside in a card(). In this case, if you want fill items (e.g., plotly_widget) to still fill the card like we’ve seen before, you’ll need to set fillable = TRUE in layout_sidebar().

card(
  height = 300,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A sidebar layout inside a card"),
  layout_sidebar(
    fillable = TRUE,
    sidebar = sidebar(
      actionButton("btn", "A button")
    ),
    plotly_widget
  )
)
A sidebar layout inside a card

Static images

card_image() makes it easy to embed static (i.e., pre-generated) images into a card. Provide a URL to href to make it clickable. In the case of multiple card_image()s, consider laying them out in multiple cards with layout_column_wrap() to produce a grid of clickable thumbnails.

card(
  height = 300,
  full_screen = TRUE,
  card_image(
    file = "shiny-hex.svg",
    href = "https://github.com/rstudio/shiny"
  ),
  card_body(
    fill = FALSE,
    card_title("Shiny for R"),
    p(
      class = "fw-light text-muted",
      "Brought to you by RStudio."
    )
  )
)
Shiny for R

Brought to you by RStudio.

Flexbox

Both card() and card_body() default to fillable = TRUE (that is, they are CSS flexbox containers), which works wonders for facilitating filling outputs, but it also leads to surprising behavior with inline tags (e.g., actionButton(), span(), strings, etc). Specifically, each inline tag is placed on a new line, but in a “normal” layout flow (fillable = FALSE), inline tags render inline.

card(
  card_body(
    fillable = TRUE,
    "Here's some", tags$i("inline"), "text",
    actionButton("btn1", "A button")
  ),
  card_body(
    fillable = FALSE,
    "Here's some", tags$i("inline"), "text",
    actionButton("btn2", "A button")
  )
)
Here's some inline text
Here's some inline text

That said, sometimes working in a flexbox layout is quite useful, even when working with inline tags. Here we leverage flexbox’s gap property to control the spacing between a plot, a (full-width) button, and paragraph. Note that, by using markdown() for the paragraph, it wraps the results in a <p> tag, which means the contents of the paragraph are not longer subject to flexbox layout. If we wanted, we could do something similar to render the actionButton() inline by wrapping it in a div().

card(
  height = 325, full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header("A plot with an action links"),
  card_body(
    class = "gap-2 container",
    plotly_widget,
    actionButton(
      "go_btn", "Action button",
      class = "btn-primary rounded-0"
    ),
    markdown("Here's a _simple_ [hyperlink](https://www.google.com/).")
  )
)
A plot with an action links

Here's a simple hyperlink.

In addition to gap, flexbox has really nice ways of handling otherwise difficult spacing and alignment issues. And, thanks to Bootstrap’s flex utility classes, we can easily opt-in and customize defaults.

card(
  height = 300, full_screen = TRUE,
  card_header(
    class = "d-flex justify-content-between",
    "Centered plot",
    checkboxInput("check", " Check me", TRUE)
  ),
  card_body(
    class = "align-items-center",
    plotOutput("id", width = "75%")
  )
)
Centered plot

Shiny

Since this article is statically rendered, the examples here use statically rendered content/widgets, but the same card() functionality works for dynamically rendered content via Shiny (e.g., plotOutput(), plotlyOutput(), etc).

An additional benefit that comes with using shiny is the ability to use getCurrentOutputInfo() to render new/different content when the output container becomes large enough, which is particularly useful with card(full_screen = T, ...). For example, you may want additional captions/labels when a plot is large, additional controls on a table, etc (see the value boxes article for a clever use of this).

# UI logic
ui <- page_fluid(
  card(
    max_height = 200,
    full_screen = TRUE,
    card_header("A dynamically rendered plot"),
    plotOutput("plot_id")
  )
)

# Server logic
server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$plot_id <- renderPlot({
    info <- getCurrentOutputInfo()
    if (info$height() > 600) {
      # code for "large" plot
    } else {
      # code for "small" plot
    }
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Appendix

The following CSS is used to give plotOutput() a background color; it’s necessary here because this documentation page is not actually hooked up to a Shiny app, so we can’t show a real plot.

.shiny-plot-output {
  background-color: #216B7288;
  height: 400px;
  width: 100%;
}